3Com 3CRDW696 Using the Configuration Utility, Configuring the Wireless PCI Adapter, Link Status

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Using the Configuration Utility

The 3Com 11Mbps Wireless LAN PCI Adapter uses its own management software for all supported operating systems except Microsoft Windows XP (see the section “Configuring Automatic Network Connections with Windows XP” for XP specific information). All functions controlled by the user are provided by this application. Usually this application starts automatically. You can also click the Configuration Utility icon from Start Menu to start the utility application.

A new icon appears in your Icon systems tray.

The icon appears green when the wireless LAN adapter is operating normally or the connection between the adapter and an access point has a strong signal/link. The icon appears yellow if there is a marginal connection with an access point. If the icon is red, it means that the Wireless LAN PCI Adapter configuration is invalid or incomplete. A red icon may also indicate a poor connection between the Wireless LAN PCI Adapter and an access point.

Configuring the Wireless PCI Adapter

Click the tabs to navigate through the configuration settings:

Link Status

Status—used to display the current status of connection. When the state shows “Connected to SSID“ the card is operating normally in Infrastructure mode--the computer is connected to an access point and networking is available.

Scanning—the node is searching for an available access point and is unable to detect the SSID (sometimes referred to as ESSID) for an available access point within range. This field will also display an error message if the driver failed to initialize.

Network Type

Infrastructure Mode—the driver scans all available channels continuously until it finds one or more Access Points that matches its SSID. At that point it tries to authenticate and associate with the Access Point.

Ad Hoc Mode—the driver scans for 5 seconds looking for an existing Ad Hoc network using the same SSID.

Current Channel and Transmit Rate—shows the channel of the radio and the transmit rate that is being currently used for an active connection. This value has no meaning whenthe radio is “Scanning”